


Hefnendakvidha

by Thette



Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alliterative Poetry, Canonical Character Death, Epic Poetry, Gen, Hrynhenda, Old Norse, Old Norse Verse, Poetry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-22
Updated: 2013-06-22
Packaged: 2017-12-15 19:10:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/853037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thette/pseuds/Thette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events of The Avengers, as told by the Asgardian court skald Joss Whedon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hefnendakvidha

**Author's Note:**

> Hrynhenda is a development of drottkvätt, the Old Norse royal meter. It has four stressed syllables per line, and the last one is a trochee (stressed-unstressed). I've chosen to work quite strictly with a trochaic tetrameter (four trochees per line). 
> 
> A stanza is eight lines, and the two half-stanzas should each have a separate narrative. Different narratives can be interwoven within a stanza, and I've chosen to write the interspersed parts in parentheses. The more kennings, the better, and they can be embellished with extra descriptions or be complex, using a kenning for a word in another kenning. (Yo, I heard you like kennings, so I put kennings in your kennings so you can kenning while you kenning.)
> 
> The odd lines have a half-rhymed consonance (same consonant in a stressed syllable, not necessarily the same vowel), and the even lines have a full internal rhyme. Two stressed syllables on the odd lines should alliterate with the first stressed syllable on the following even line. All vowels alliterate; st, sp, sk and s (followed by any other letter) do not alliterate with each other.
> 
> There's a list of kennings at the end of the chapter.
> 
> So far, I've only managed to write Act One of the movie, but I might give the rest of it a try.

Chants of swords and ships of sun-way  
Songs of glory, love and longing  
Tales I've told to youth and elder  
Truths of ruthless might and magic  
Rest, my liege, just sit and listen:  
Liesmith, traitor, sly and cunning  
Drawn to steal from mankind's dwelling  
Deep in hill-cave's children's bargain

(Strength of hang-god) King in stone-hall  
Stealth up high with eye and arrow  
Where the wise man tears asunder  
Weft of ash-tree (Left to light us)  
Bound god, reed of red wounds bleeding  
Breaks the hawk and shaking elder  
Thwarts to hatred good men's heart-wish  
(Hurt or save us) Slaves in mind-thrall

Crow-black power calls to gather  
Cold-faced soldier, true believer  
Battle ice-maid flies the banner  
Bangs the drum for anguished heroes  
Far-fam’d war-torn queen of weavers  
Woos with sweet deceitful fiction  
Fearful prince of rays and fury  
Follows her to one-eye’s sun-ship

(Storm-cloud dormant) Stark redemption  
Steel in flight and righteous beacon  
Soak'd in whale-bed's skin, awoken  
Wields the shield-knife (Mjölnir's keeper)  
Captain seeking Sleipnir's mother  
Cedes to hardened bard of iron  
Scar-torn lips have scorn for captors  
'Scapes in arms of farmers' blessing

Brothers bound by foster father  
Broken trust and painful justice  
Peace-gift from the prince of Aesir  
Poison tongue reveals his choices  
Freyas tears and fire of scarlet  
Fights the god of light and thunder  
Strife sail struck by ample hammer  
Staying kinship, kindling forest

**Author's Note:**

> Kennings that are known from old Norse texts are marked by an asterisk.  
> Ships of *sun-way: spaceships, referring to Firefly  
> *Liesmith: Loki  
> Hill-cave's children: trolls (generally associated with the underworld); I'm using trolls as a stand-in for the Chitauri  
> *Hang-god: Odin  
> Strength of hang-god: the Tesseract  
> Stealth up high with eye and arrow: Hawkeye  
> Weft of *ash-tree: the fabric of the world  
> *Bound god: Loki  
> *Reed of wounds: spear  
> Crow-black power: Nick Fury  
> Cold-faced soldier, true believer: Phil Coulson  
> Battle ice-maid: Maria Hill  
> Anguished heroes: the Avengers  
> Far-fam’d war-torn queen of weavers: Black Widow  
> Fearful prince of rays and fury: Bruce Banner  
> *One-eye: Nick Fury (but also Odin)  
> One-eye’s sun-ship: the Helicarrier  
> Storm-cloud dormant: Thor  
> Steel in flight: Iron Man  
> Righteous beacon: Stark Tower  
> *Whale-bed's skin: ice  
> Soak'd in whale-bed's skin: Captain America  
> *Mjölnir's keeper: Thor  
> *Sleipnir's mother: Loki  
> Bard of iron: Iron Man  
> *Scar-torn lips: Loki  
> *Farmers' blessing: Thor  
> Prince of Aesir: Thor  
> *Poison tongue: Loki  
> *Freyas tears: amber or gold  
> Freyas tears and fire of scarlet: Iron Man  
> *God of light[ning] and thunder: Thor  
> *Strife sail: shield


End file.
